Texas Gov. Rick Perry rarely concedes that he has reversed himself on a policy issue. But he did just that today when he said on national TV he had “changed my position” and now opposes any federal assistance for nuclear plants or other energy projects.

The flip-flop is significant because the current Republican presidential candidate asked the U.S. Department of Energy three years ago to approve a federal loan guarantee for the construction of a Texas nuclear power plant in Matagorda County.

“We were asking at that particular point in time for the federal government to support the nuclear power industry in the state of Texas or across the country, from that standpoint,” Perry said today on Fox News Sunday. “But from a general standpoint, any type of federal dollars flowing into these industries we (now) think is bad public policy.”

Perry says that his proposed 20 percent flat tax option for U.S. businesses would be far better for job creation than the potpourri of tax breaks currently received by the energy industry, from fossil fuels to alternative energy producers.

“I think the federal government needs to be completely out of the subsidization or the tax credit side on the energy,” he said. “States can do it.”

“I have changed my position from the standpoint of having any desire to have the federal government,” Perry said today. “I’ve learned some things over the years and what I’ve learned is the federal government by and large, you keep them out of these issues particularly on the energy side, and I think that’s the best position for us to take as Americans today.”

For the past two months, Perry has been hammering Republican rival Mitt Romney for changing his positions for political reasons. Today, Romney aides quickly jumped on Perry’s pronouncements to highlight what they claimed to be Texas-sized flip-flops on subjects including energy subsidies, Social Security and immigration.

“As Governor Perry has demonstrated throughout this campaign, career politicians will say and do anything to get elected,” said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho. “The only thing he can say about his long career in office is that he is consistently inconsistent. America needs a turnaround, but the career politicians who got us into this mess are incapable of leading us out.”